Horse-meat scandal – New food safety Bill launched by Sinn Féin to track products

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

‘It is in the interests of us all – consumers, processing workers and farmers – that we can stand fully over the integrity of Irish food.’

FOOD SAFETY and traceability in the wake of the horse-meat/burger-meat scandal are at the heart of new legislation launched today by Sinn Féin Agriculture & Food spokesperson Martin Ferris TD.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (Amendment) Bill 2013 aims to ensure the highest standards of food safety and the origins of all ingredients of food produced here are properly labelled according to country of origin.

Deputy Ferris said:

“While the Food Safety Authority is emerging with some credit from this crisis, we believe that more needs to be done in order to prevent a repeat of a situation where produce is falsely labelled as ‘100% Irish’ but where there is no clear traceability of the ingredients and indeed where some of those ingredients are not meant to be in the product and may even be potentially harmful.”

The Kerry TD said that Sinn Féin wants to see a strengthening of North-South co-operation on food safety and greater involvement of the All-Ireland Ministerial Council and Safe Food Ireland in scanning for potential future threats.

“It is in the interests of us all – consumers, processing workers and farmers – that we can stand fully over the integrity of Irish food.”